Time flies

It's clear that I'm back at work. No time to write anything or continue to research for this project. I had planned to write to AC's grandson to ask if he had any objections to my plans. Also to write to a publisher or two. I've done neither, mainly out of fear. Fear of rejection. Yet I could do this journey without either. Would be nice if there was some sanction from someone though. Oh, and some money would be useful.

Found this website while looking for an image of the route of the Orient Express in 1934. At least it isn't porn, but goodness knows what it has to do with the Orient Express. It's interesting how every aspect of Mrs Mallowan's life is picked over.

Astrology and Mrs Mallowan!

Notebooks

A new biography on Agatha Christie has just been published. Melodramatically titled Duchess of Death, it has received a bad review in the Guardian (thank heavens). In searching for more information about the book, I've come across yet more information on the Guardian website, including a mini quiz about Agatha (I scored a disappointing 6/11 - more to study I think). I'm hoping to upload a podcast of an interview with John Curran, recorded in September 2009, about his book Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks. What an interesting interview. He was lucky enough to be given access to boxes of Agatha's notebooks and has found lots of new information, including an alternative ending to Death Comes As The End. I must get this book to see what is covered about the period 1934-1939 and what more detail can be gleaned about her times in Syria with Max.

Photo and podcast are from the Guardian newspaper website. John Curran being interviewed about his book on Agatha Christie's notebooks.

Penguin Publishing 75th anniversary

Just read in a copy of the Guardian newspaper that the classic Penguin books that we all know and feel nostalgia for is celebrating its 75th anniversary. What's the connection with Mrs Mallowan? According to the article, Allen Lane thought of the need for cheap, quality books after visiting with Agatha in Devon. So, it seems she inspired a revolution in publishing. He pushed forward his idea and Penguin Publishing was launched on 30 July 1935. Hmm, she would have been thinking about the first dig at Chagar Bazar which was due to start in the late autumn that year. Now that my eyes are alert for information about Agatha Christie, particularly in that period of time, it seems to come at me from all directions. Green was the colour code used for the covers of crime novels published by Penguin. Wonder if I can find one somewhere in a second hand bookshop.

Mrs Mallowan's music

The idea of Agatha Christie with an I-pod has started another trail in the attempt to understand her more. If the Queen can have an I-pod, I'm sure that Agatha would have had one for her long journeys to Syria and Iraq. I'm still reading 8.55 to Baghdad by Andrew Eames and have discovered a few more nuggets of information, including Agatha's special request for Elgar's Nimrod from the Enigma Variations to be played at her funeral in 1976. I've found a YouTube video with my favourite pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.

Tell Brak

I'm still gathering evidence and pondering on the case. The idea of simply following the route to Chagar Bazar doesn't seem sufficient to me. What's my purpose in this project? My inspiration is Ms Christie's memoir about her travels and her life at Chagar Bazar and Tell Brak. Like Ms Christie, my main purpose is more anthropological than archeological, although I am interested in ancient times. Again, like her, I'm more intriqued by the ephemera of every day life, which provides more personal indications of the life of the people. Eye idols don't do much for me I'm afraid. Why 'eye' anyway? Again, like Ms Christie, when I hear archeologists confidently explaining about what a lump of clay would have been used for 4,000 years ago, I find myself wondering 'how do they know?'. I feel the same way about economics which relies on predicting behaviour of people, when one of the best qualities of people is that they behave unpredictably so often.

Back to the point of this posting. I want to retrace the travel section, if at all possible by the Orient Express although the cost seems prohibitive (perhaps another of my preparatory tasks must be to find a sugar daddy toute suite). However, I want to spend time at the two archeological sites to drink in every day life and live within the landscape that Ms Christie loved so much. I want to see if there have been changes and allow a 21st century audience to see beyond the 'axis of evil' and the general fear of Arabs that is prevalent in the West. Just two weeks ago, at a small village produce show, an elderly Norfolk man made a comment about a photo taken inside a mosque in Oman.

Cor, you wouldn't catch me taking a photo in a mosque. Probably get blown up!

If I am to spend time at Chagar Bazar, or nearby, I will need to do something, preferably a paid job. Well, I can type, write and take photographs. I can cook plain food, clean and do laundry (although I expect local people can do the same and need the job more than I do). So, my current quest is to investigate how I can find a job in Syria. Seems a daunting prospect, but with determination . . .

Futility, folly and foolishness

The depths of doubt are deep and gloomy and that is where I am residing after spending 4 weeks carrying out perfunctory research for the Project. I am going to come clean as no-one is reading this but me. I am a long-term writer-in-waiting. One of the many people out there who knows that they can write a good sentence every now and then and hopes that one day they might get at least an article published. The Project was going to be my Book. It might even be serialised on TV, although I'm neither attractive enough or sufficiently famous to be the presenter thankfully. Now I feel very foolish, because the Project, the Big Idea, the Book has already been done! Andrew Eames followed Agatha Christie's initial journey to Baghdad in 'The 8.55 to Baghdad', published in 2004. I have two weeks almost to myself as I house-sit for a friend in deepest Norfolk. My friend's partner has lent me Andrew Eames' book which I will read with gritted teeth. Not only has he written something that may make my Project redundant, but he was a well-known journalist at the time and has won a travel writing award for his endeavours. How can I compete? Should I compete? Is this all folly and foolishness? Does any of this really matter?

There is a glimmer of hope down here in the depths. His book does not cover the journey that I planned, which is from London to Chagar Bazar using the Orient Express to Istanbul, travel to Aleppo (still have to figure out how she did that) on to Beirut where I would need to find a driver to take me to Chagar Bazar. I've read somewhere that there may be another dig taking place there now. Could I get a job with them? I need some method of raising the money to do this journey and it looks extremely unlikely that any publishing or production company would be in the slightest bit interested. I still feel committed to this project. I'm very nervous about contacting her family and other people who have already written and published about Ms Christie. I would love to do the journey, but am I brave enough? It's encouraging that Mr Eames first thought of his retracing journey in the autumn of 1999, but didn't actually start until about 2002. These things take time.

Joanna Lumley's Nile

I'm overdue other blogs after an interesting, although disheartening week after more research and help from a friend. I'm just watching an ITV programme featuring Joanna Lumley travelling the Nile and have noticed the number of times that she has mentioned Agatha Christie. It seems that a Briton cannot think of Cairo, or the Nile or pyraminds without a connection with Ms Christie. I'm sure she would love it.

It's not the only time that Ms Christie has been mentioned in connection with something not altogether expected. I'm currently reading a Paul Theroux book (details later) in which he is retracing a rail journey from London to India and he has mentioned Agathat Christie in connection with the Orient Express. She is all pervading in such interesting ways.